A Strange Case of Déjà Vu

You’d think becoming a New York Times Bestselling Author for the first time would feel pretty exciting, wouldn’t you?

I thought so too, but when the time actually came… something was definitely missing. Here’s what happened…

First of all, this wasn’t my first book. I had already written and self-published three others. But that “New York Times Bestselling Author” status still eluded me. This time, however, I had my “system” fine-tuned to the point where I was CERTAIN my time had come. I would finally hit that list, and “The Big Time”.

I could see it.

I could feel it.

I could TASTE it!

Along with the many “mechanical” steps I was taking to get my book on that illustrious list, I began practicing the formula I had learned (and now teach) of “acting as if”. Here’s what I mean by this:

Every day, without fail, I “rehearsed” those feelings I would have when my book became a NY Times Bestseller. In my mind’s eye, I would see myself reaching for the phone on launch day, and hear my agent speak those sweet words, “Peggy, you just hit the New York Times list!”

I would feel the excitement bubbling up from my belly and bursting through the top of my head, see and hear and feel my family all gathering around and congratulating me on my achievement.

I would imagine my next book cover with the words “By Peggy McColl, New York Times Bestselling Author” emblazoned across it.

This went on every… single… day!

It may sound a little crazy to you (maybe even a LOT crazy) but I’d be in the grocery store, and hear (just in my imagination, of course) other shoppers whispering to each other and their children, “Hey there’s that New York Times best-selling author”.

While driving down Highway #417, I’d imagine people pointing excitedly to my personalized “Destiny” plates, and saying, “Wow! That must be Peggy McColl, the New York Times best-selling author”.

Everywhere I went, every single day, I “experienced” these things in my imagination, more deeply and vividly than I had ever done before.

Then came the big day.

On the morning my book “Your Destiny Switch” launched, I may have had my fingers crossed, but I never let up on “acting as if”. I kept playing all those same scenarios through my head (seeing, hearing, FEELING life as a bestseller) just as I had for all those days, all those months leading up to this.

And when my agent called from New York City and said:

“Peg I have some exciting news for you, your book is on the New York Times Best Seller list!”

…well, I started jumping up and down like a kid on a Pogo stick. And yet…

Even while I was jumping up and down, there was this strange sensation of déjà vu, and I remember thinking, “I don’t really FEEL any different!”

Something was missing, and I realized that “something” was the novelty factor. It just didn’t feel like anything new. Sure, I was excited out of my tree. And extremely grateful, too!

Although, I realized in that moment that I had already “lived” this experience MANY times. I had been practicing this philosophy of “act as if” so thoroughly and convincingly, and for so long, that my body and mind, my entire being, had long ago accepted it as “real”, that I had already accomplished it. I was already “there”.

So, for all intents and purposes, this was “nothing new”.

Can you begin to see what was happening here? My outer world had conformed to my inner world, my thoughts, my feelings, my beliefs.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: When you “act as if”, then the thought becomes the thing. (I’m paraphrasing here but you get the point, right?)

This is what “manifestation” is all about. And if you will just do the same for anything YOU truly and deeply desire, I can almost GUARANTEE you success. But you have to be consistent, and you have to make it “real” in your mind and in your heart.

Peggy McColl

Peggy McColl is a New York Times Best-Selling Author and has been called “The Master Manifester” by Arielle Ford and thousands of her clients. She has been studying – and teaching beside – Bob Proctor for decades and inspires millions around the world to create the life of their dreams and provides them with proven step-by-step programs to bring imagination into tangible form.

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